Helping to build a bigger future with the IoT

Construction is one of the oldest professions we’ve got. Food, water, and shelter — our three base necessities. It’s been around a long time and it’s evolved over those years from sticks all the way to our modern apartments and skyscrapers. As with many things, building is ready to be made better by the Internet of Things (IoT).

Real-time data is a huge advantage in the industry. Constant activity on your site, however large, is made more easily manageable by sensors without needing to be present. An example of this comes from wood. Sealing wood work is best done in an environment with less humidity. Knowing that your site has high humidity today means you can schedule the work for tomorrow and get people working on other projects in the meantime.

Sensor data doesn’t have to be restricted to building, though. It can be used for detecting leaks or breaks in a system, preventing wood warping, and much more. Larger companies who have systems like these in place have actually saved millions of pounds with these small preventative measures.

Another benefit of larger companies, or any company with multiple people on a project, is that the data can be used for many different means all at once. Contractors, drivers, inspectors; given the resources, they can all see exactly what they need to efficiently do their jobs. Tracking a project, and all the information involved, can become such a mess without a good system. Files, folders, and countless amounts of old data leads to mistakes. With real-time updates, the data will be easy to find and easy to make decisions based on.

Networking all this together won’t be easy, though. Networks now need to become faster and more reliable on building sites where things constantly move and take shape. Right now, one solution to that is allowing real-time information to flow through the site using LTE. Flexibility is key in creating a workable solution and helping to make work sites more easily manageable.

As improvements are made to our technology and the Internet of Things, we’ll be able to start determining better start times, work flows, and resource allocation. Communication will end up being improved, along with the efficiency of workers and managers.

In 2020, it’s expected for the construction industry to grow to be nearly £8 trillion. The industry must also grow its returns, though. The IoT is one way to make that happen.